Crash and Burn (Day 204)

I think in the past I've had aspirations to be a sort of film buff but I've never invested enough time in actually watching important movies to feel qualified to comment on them in any real way. I enjoy the medium of course, but my opinions on the format are less valid than some others'. There are, of course, some directors that I really like, but even then I haven't seen all of their work. I really enjoy Paul Thomas Anderson, particularly Magnolia, but I also like Martin Scorsese and Quentin Tarantino.

I decided yesterday while playing Final Fantasy II that I would start watching more films, particularly those by critically acclaimed directors. I thought I'd even watch films that might not have been so well received just so I could form my own opinions. I decided to start with the Coen Brothers. I'll be watching through their film catalog in order and rewatching the films I've seen before. So far, I've watched Blood Simple, Raising Arizona, Miller's Crossing, and Barton Fink. Of those four, the first three were completely new to me.

Blood Simple was originally released in 1984 and it was the Coen brothers' directorial debut. It's a thriller featuring relatively unknown actors, including Frances McDormand in her first film role. I thought it was interesting to see Dan Hedaya in a prominent role in that movie--I'd only ever seen him before on Cheers as Carla Tortelli's scumbag ex-husband Nick. He's far more sinister in Blood Simple, where he hires a private investigator to tail his wife (McDormand) when he expects she's cheating on him.

Raising Arizona, on the other hand, is a goofy comedy film featuring the infamous Nicolas Cage in one of the performances that garnered him the cult following he has today. Cage plays a no-good recidivist who falls in love with a female police officer played by Holly Hunter. They marry and discover that they are unable to have children, so they cook up a ridiculous plan to kidnap a child from a famous couple that have just given birth to quintuplets. Their reasoning is that they just have too many kids to handle. This film is also the first appearance of John Goodman in a Coen brothers film--and in my opinion, he's the best thing about it. Frances McDormand also returns in a minor role.

Miller's Crossing is a bloody gangster film set in the 1940s featuring Gabriel Byrne as Tom Reagan and Marcia Gay Harden as Verna Bernbaum in lead roles. John Turturro has a memorable performance as a clever bookie while Jon Polito and Albert Finney play rival crime bosses.

John Turturro, Jon Polito, and John Goodman (that's a lot of Johns) all return for Barton Fink, a surreal film about an aspiring writer with delusions of grandeur. Although he believes in the integrity of his work, he jumps at the chance to sell out to Hollywood. The premise is simple, but things get really weird as the movie progresses. As Turturro's Barton Fink holes himself up in a creepy hotel to write, he befriends his neighbor, Charlie Meadows (John Goodman). Goodman plays Meadows with a mixture of quiet intensity and affable charm--but there is terror lurking underneath the surface. I've seen the film before and gladly watched it again. It is my favorite of these first four.